School of Visual Arts Leads Student Academy Awards Finalists

The School of Visual Arts in New York City leads all schools in this year's Student Academy Awards competition, which has been narrowed down to a list of finalists released by the Academy on Wednesday.

Five films produced at the school made the list of 34 U.S. films and nine foreign films, which will compete in five separate categories for the Student Oscars. Up to three winners in each category will be chosen and announced at a later date, although the level of prize each has won – gold, silver or bronze – will not be revealed until the Student Academy Awards ceremony on Saturday, June 8 in Beverly Hills.

NYU placed four films on the list of finalists, while USC, CalArts, the Ringling College of Art and Design and the University of Texas at Austin each had three.

Florida State University and the American Film Institute produced two finalists each.

In the foreign category, finalists included films from Germany, Sweden, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium and two from the U.K.

Tickets for the Student Academy Awards are free to the public but must be obtained at the Academy website or at AMPAS headquarters in Beverly Hills.

The finalists:

Alternative "Beyond the Spheres," Meghdad Asadi Lari, Rochester Institute of Technology "Bottled Up," Rafael Cortina, Occidental College "Bye Hyungjik," Hyungjik Lee, Florida State University "The Compositor," John Mattiuzzi, School of Visual Arts "File Not Found," Maria Sequeira, University of Southern California "The Pirate of Love," Sara Gunnarsdottir, California Institute of the Arts "Zug," Perry Janes, University of Michigan

Animation "Couch & Potatoes," Chris Lam and Eunsoo Jeong, San Jose State University "Dia de los Muertos," Lindsey St. Pierre and Ashley Graham, Ringling College of Art and Design "Drifters," Ethan Clarke, California Institute of the Arts "Make a Wish," Heejin Kim, School of Visual Arts "Peck Pocketed," Kevin Herron, Ringling College of Art and Design "Runaway," Emily Buchanan and Esther Parobek, Ringling College of Art and Design "Still I Breathe," Sang Ho Lee, School of Visual Arts "Watercolors," Robert Kornstein, New York University "Will," Eusong Lee, California Institute of the Arts

Documentary "The Battle of the Jazz Guitarist," Mark Columbus, University of California, Los Angeles "Every Tuesday: A Portrait of The New Yorker Cartoonists," Rachel Loube, School of Visual Arts "Everybody's Business," Laura Green, Stanford University "Graceland Girls," Jordan Theresa Salvatoriello, Emerson College "A Second Chance," David Aristizabal, University of Southern California "Through the Fire," Eunice Lau, New York University "Vultures of Tibet," Russell O. Bush, University of Texas at Austin "Win or Lose," Daniel Koehler, Elon University "Wonder Workshop," Amitabh Joshi and Erik Spink, School of Visual Arts

Narrative "Caught," Bruce Li, New York University "Cootie Contagion," Joshua Smooha, Florida State University "Footsteps," Thomas (Hyungkyun) Kim, New York University "Josephine and the Roach," Jonathan Langager, University of Southern California "Kalifornija," Tomas Vengris, American Film Institute "The Midwife's Husband," Deja Bernhardt, University of Texas at Austin "Ol' Daddy," Brian Schwarz, University of Texas at Austin "Samnang," Asaph Polonsky, American Film Institute "Un Mundo para Raúl (A World for Raúl)," Mauro Mueller, Columbia University

Foreign Film "Erbgut (Liquidation)," Matthias Zuder, Hamburg Media School, Germany "För Sverige i Tiden (King of Sweden)," Jonas Westbom, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sweden "Kanyekanye," Miklas Manneke, AFDA The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, South Africa "The Library of Burned Books," Alasdair Beckett-King, London Film School, United Kingdom "Miss Todd," Kristina Yee, National Film and Television School, United Kingdom "MO," Jakub Kouril, FAMU, Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic "Parvaneh,"Talkhon Hamzavi, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland "To Guard a Mountain," Izer Aliu, The Norwegian Filmschool, Norway "Tweesprong (Crossroads)," Wouter Bouvijn, Rits School of Arts, Erasmus College Brussels, Belgium